With the correct approach, businesses can create a more substantial return on investment (ROI) that leads to an uplift in customer lifetime value (CLV), lowering customer acquisition costs and reducing churn.
Customer acquisition is often the driving force behind e-commerce businesses, but it usually comes with high costs. Therefore, it is vital to create ongoing revenue from acquired customers to offset these costs and maximise profit. After all, engaging with existing customers is 9x more likely to result in sales than directing marketing towards first-time buyers.
So, how do you turn one-time seasonal buyers into repeat customers?
1. Engagement Emails
Businesses can leverage automatic engagement emails to get a crucial second purchase, which often snowballs into a loyal customer that returns time after time to the same brand. Investing in engagement emails is incredibly fruitful, with emails taking minutes to create but putting a repeat sales opportunity in front of hundreds or thousands of one-time buyers.
An effective and more insightful approach to win back emails is created by adopting rules based on industry and product knowledge, trends, and data. For instance, emails can be sent one week, one month, or two months after the first purchase, followed by results analysis. Similarly, businesses can test alternative products and services to discover the highest conversion rates depending on the customer’s first purchase.
The third engagement email success factor is an urgency to act, introduced through discount or promotion deadlines.
According to data from Barilliance, re-engagement emails provide an average ROI of 3,800 per cent, equating to £38 for every £1 invested.
2. Better Offers For Existing Customers
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are ideal times for brands to offer existing customers a higher discount than new customers. With zero advertising costs from Google Search or Facebook Ads, profit margins remain high even when the incentive is significantly higher than those offered on standard Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
3. Early Access To New Services And Products
The incentive to make a second purchase does not need to be financial. Early or exclusive product and service access demonstrate that existing customers are highly valued and create an opportunity to increase pre-sales, collect data, and acquire feedback. Early access to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and New Year deals further encourage one-time buyers to make a second purchase.
4. First-Time Buyer Newsletter Promotions
Brand loyalty can be triggered by showing first-time buyers they are valued. Newsletter promotions with offers only for one-time buyers is a practical approach. Running campaigns during seasonal uplifts in e-commerce means promoting products right when consumers are in a buying frame of mind.
According to Smart Insights, the average newsletter open rate is 18.76 per cent.
5. Loyalty Programs
Creating a loyalty program is not only a hook for a second sale but creates ongoing revenue by rewarding loyalty. According to research from Accenture, loyalty programs create customers who spend more, generating up to 18 per cent more revenue than non-members.
Accenture’s research indicates that loyalty programs are one of the most impactful marketing strategies, with businesses citing increasing customer lifetime value (37 per cent) and retention rates (40 per cent) as their motivating factors.
Data from Annex Cloud confirms the consumer mindset on loyalty, with 87 per cent of shoppers wanting loyalty programs from their brands. Additionally, 46 per cent of customers say they have already increased spending with businesses providing loyalty rewards, showing their value on both sides of the equation.
Repeat Customers – Conclusions
Converting one-time buyers into brand-loyal repeat customers not only requires less investment than new customer acquisition but improves revenue, with marketing campaigns creating greater engagement.
Promotions, offers, and deals are effective tactics that re-engage buyers, while loyalty programs keep customers coming back.
Are you looking to create a loyalty program for your business? The Super Marketing Group is a loyalty marketing solutions expert that builds bespoke loyalty and customer engagement campaigns. Loyalty solutions are driven by the latest technology, engagement portals, and behaviour and redemption analysis, which help you develop greater returns on investment and higher customer lifetime values.
Share